1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for manufacturing sub-harness efficiently by guiding a terminal to a specified terminal-receiving chamber of a connector housing and checking continuity of an electric wire with terminals concurrently.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wire harness, which is a group of electric wires arranged in a vehicle, is formed by combining a plurality of sub-harnesses. The sub-harness is composed of a plurality of electric wires, terminals each of which is crimped at one end or both ends of the each electric wire, and the connector housing made of synthetic resin, into which the terminals are inserted. The way to crimp the terminal is, firstly to strip an end part of a sheath of the electric wire off, secondly in a state that a lead wire of the wire is exposed, to crimp-contact a crimping piece at a front side of the terminal to the lead wire, and to crimp-fix a crimping piece at a rear side of the terminal to the sheath of the electric wire. The electric wire with terminals is formed by crimping the terminals onto the electric wire.
A worker inserts and fits the terminal crimped onto the electric wire into the terminal-receiving chamber of the connector housing. The terminal is locked by a resilient locking lance in the terminal-locking chamber so as not to slip out of the terminal-receiving chamber. The connector is composed of the connector housing and the terminals. Recently, with the multi-circuit design and the space saving design of the assembly, many connectors are considerably miniaturized, and many terminal-receiving chambers are formed in a multistage in a connector housing of the connector. Moreover, with diversification of circuits, variety of connectors is increased.
It is very difficult for the worker to insert the terminal into the specified terminal-receiving chamber of such a connector housing. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open 2000-133385 (page 3, FIG. 1), the applicant of this invention formerly disclosed an apparatus to prevent incorrect terminal insertion, as a means for a worker, not limited to skilled worker, to insert easily and correctly a specified terminal into a corresponding terminal-receiving chamber. When the worker holds the terminal and a terminal of a connector housing receptacle by hand, said apparatus teaches a position into which the terminal is to be inserted, by illuminating the specified receiving chamber with a light emitter. However, in such a conventional apparatus to prevent incorrect terminal insertion, since the terminal is held by worker's hand, it is feared that the terminal becomes easy to oxidize. Additionally, in the conventional apparatus, although the terminal is inserted into the specified terminal-receiving chamber reliably, after the insertion of the terminal, continuity of the electric wire with terminals should be checked in another process. Therefore, there is a problem that manufacturing the sub-harness takes much time.